Old Man and The Sea

I started reading “The Old Man and the Sea” three days before Paul Wadden’s lecture, so I mostly rushed through it. One thing I was thankful for was the easy language. There were, I admit, many technical terms of fishing that I was unfamiliar with but the vocabulary wasn’t too hard. In fact, the easy language suggested to me that this is a children’s book. After listening to Mr. Wadden’s lecture, I conclude that this book is similar to “le petit prince” by Saint Exupery. An adult book disguised as a children’s book as I believe the moral message in “The Old Man and the Sea” is meant more for adults than children. While I was reading this novel, I did not contemplate too much about the possible themes. One thing I felt while reading it was how philosophical the old man’s words were. He contemplates whether he has the right to kill the marlin etc.

Although I believe that the theme for this book is the fisherman as an artist, The “fisherman as Christ” theme was an intriguing point of view. When one goes back to the book, the number of days the old man is out in the sea and his actions match perfectly with Christ in the Bible. However, if Hemingway meant to make similarities between the old man and Christ, I wonder what his motive was. In the first theme “fisherman as an artist”, his motive is quite clear as he himself suffered as an artist. After all, the old man does not seem like a figure who people will revere after his death. He is neither serving the poor nor have many enemies like Christ. At one point, Mr. Wadden said, “I don’t know how well you know your Bible”, and it may be just me but I felt that he assumes all of us to be Christians?

Mr. Wadden mentioned how the critics said that the old man is too idealized as a person. I disagree because I think it is possible for a person like the old man to exist. After all, he does have some flaws. For example, he is in a sense slightly stubborn as he refuses to ask others for help but insists on doing everything on his own. Maybe in the summer, I will read this book again since I will have more time to read it!